Libya has stepped up radical development of the country’s oil sector, focusing on gas exploration and production with a view to increasing exports to Europe.
Speaking to Oxford Business Group (OBG), over the weekend, Shokri Ghanem, Chairman of the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), announced that the move to intensify activity within the gas segment “is in line with new energy policies which many European countries are adopting ; and follows a series of promising gas explorations, most notably in the Gulf of Sirt”.
On ‘The Report : Libya 2010’, Ghanem dwelt on business intelligence on the country’s macroeconomics, infrastructure, political landscape, banking and sectoral developments.
“Even if companies are still at the exploration phase, we can already gauge that a number of significant discoveries have taken place following the last-bid round, both offshore and onshore.
“That is why we dedicated our fourth-bid round to the gas segment”, he said.
Ghanem further explained that Libya had also begun rolling out plans to privatize the refineries and the petrochemical strands of the oil industry as part of its wider move to reshape the sector.
“We began by privatizing the Zwara fertilizer plant and the Raf Lanuf refinery.
“Currently, we are finalizing the process which will bring about the privatization of the chemical industries”, he added.
Many economic experts shared optimism that the downstream segment of the industry will act as a platform to attract foreign investment to Libya’s shores.
“The idea is for the downstream sector to be owned in the main by foreign investors rather than the public sector, serving as a serious bid to encourage entrepreneurship and investment in Libya’s energy sector,” Ghanem said.
He was positive while stating that Libya’s move to liberalize the oil sector against the country’s changing economic landscape, would allow local companies to play a more active role on the business scene.
“When the sanctions were in place, many local companies were unable to compete on an international scale because they did not have the means to generate sufficient growth,” he said.
“We believe that during the coming years, there will be a marked increase in the development of local content within the industry and we are doing our best to encourage this trend,” he adds.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
Related articles by Zemanta
- Human Rights Group Accuses Libya of Blocking Access to Certain Independent Websites (netnewspublisher.com)
- Russia And Libya to Sign Military Contracts And Agreements (netnewspublisher.com)
